INTRODUCTION 21 



Our pretty little " blue-eyed gentian," which 

 " lifts its fringed lids to heaven," takes its name 

 from Gentius, King of Illyria, who first experi- 

 enced the virtues of the plant, and Eupatorium 

 Pliny gives as the cognomen of Mithridates (132- 

 63 B. C), King of Pontus, who discovered its 

 virtues. 



Saints came in for their full share of floral 

 children; this naming probably arose in days 

 when, from the monastery gardens, plants were 

 gathered to concoct the gruesome mixtures ad- 

 ministered by priestly hands to the sick poor. 

 Herb St. Anthony, St. John's Wort, St. Christo- 

 pher's Herb, St. Ignatius' Beans, St. Martin's 

 Herb are some, while more are given by Jean 

 Bauhin in De Plantis a Divis Sanctisve Nomen 

 habentibus, 1591. 



The endurance of flower and tree as a monu- 

 ment seems to have occurred to most botanists, 

 especially in the days when might was right and 

 the tenure of land, houses, and life itself ex- 

 tremely uncertain. The little annual, bearing a 

 fellow scientist's name, knew no destruction in its 

 perpetual renewal. The huge tree, victim of 

 storm and fire and man's desire, was safe in plan- 

 tation over half a world, and the delicate Spring 

 Beauty (Claytonia) would spring half shyly, half 

 mockingly in the neglected graveyard where 

 proud family monuments sunk lop-sidedly into 



